Greenberg campaign hits Esty on taxes

The campaign of Republican candidate Mark Greenberg is hitting his rival, Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5^th District, on the issue of taxes.

A new spot, which will start running Tuesday, in the home stretch of a campaign that ends with elections on Nov. 4, is called “A Disturbing Pattern.”

It features unflattering photos of Esty, a snippet of video from a Cheshire Town Council meeting and a voice over that says, “After supporting higher property taxes, Elizabeth Esty told seniors they could move.”

The ad refers to comments Esty made at a council meeting 12 years ago, before she ran for office. It shows her telling opponents of a local tax increase, “You’re always welcome to move to one of our neighboring towns.”

The Greenberg campaign’s latest ad also says, “Continuing her pattern of raising taxes, Esty wants to increase Social Security taxes.”

Esty has said she would consider raising the cap on wages subject to Social Security taxes to shore up the program. Currently, only the first $117,000 earned annually is subject to the Social Security tax.

Greenberg’s ad also says, “Esty is running negative ads everyone agrees are false,” flashing a recent headline from the Hartford Courant and quotes from a 2012 story in the Register Citizen.

The ad concludes by saying, “Flase attacks. Higher taxes. Lies. It’s a pattern that needs to end this November.”

“This is just a desperate, last-ditch effort by Mark Greenberg to distract from the fact that Connecticut seniors are rejecting his harmful plan to privatize Social Security,” said Esty campaign spokeswoman Laura Maloney.

As far as the comments at the Cheshire council meeting, Maloney said, “Elizabeth was a mom, passionate about her kids’ public schools. And later, when Elizabeth was on the Cheshire Town Council, she worked to double the size of the property tax relief credit for seniors.”